The faculty is the greatest resource of the School. The attraction, support and retention of truly talented educators are among the School’s highest priorities. To achieve academic excellence, MICDS will dedicate its efforts to building the strongest possible faculty. MICDS will continue to seek out and support a diverse group of educators who will energetically engage and challenge students and embrace the opportunity to take teaching and learning to the next level. In articulating an expectation for its students to demonstrate life-long intellectual curiosity, MICDS will expect its faculty to model this same behavior. The passion an individual faculty member has for a subject will fuel student excitement. And, because both the advisory system and proficiency in technology are critically important elements for excellence in the academic program, MICDS will support the faculty in their efforts to advance in both of these key areas.

The faculty will contribute their collective energy and attention on achieving the School’s core institutional goals, including the attainment of academic excellence and developing a community of learners. The College Counseling Office will also seek their understanding and support for the School’s goals for college placement. Additionally, MICDS will expect its faculty to model the qualities it encourages in its students: inquisitiveness and passionate pursuit of lifelong learning; an enthusiastic understanding of the importance of community service; and an attention to the nonacademic development of students as moral and responsible citizens.

MICDS’ goal is to build a superior faculty, one that supports the School’s goal of national preeminence – to be among the best – both individually and collectively. Toward these goals, MICDS has adopted practices designed to encourage the personal and professional growth of each educator, including the additions of a Director of Faculty Development and a Director of Human Resources in 2000.  A faculty development program (POISE™) was implemented in which selected teachers undergo a year-long process of self-study, observation and assessment, resulting in the production of individualized plans for each participating teacher.  The School will review and refine the POISE™ program during this three-year planning cycle, in order to enhance both impact and efficiency.  As a further step, the School will develop a second-level program for faculty members who have previously completed POISE™. 

In addition to POISE™, the School will also study its present system for considering and funding other faculty development programs.  Among the issues to be considered is whether these programs should be evaluated partly based upon their furtherance of divisional goals or institutional priorities, rather than solely upon their furtherance of individual objectives.

MICDS will ensure that it offers to the faculty a total compensation package that is highly competitive and will sustain the School’s standing among top-tier schools in the United States.  As part of this effort, the School will embark upon a study of its current benefit package in light of best practices among local independent schools.  The School will also review the issue of faculty equity relative to workload and overall compensation.  On an individual level, the School will continue its efforts to link faculty compensation with individual performance and growth as an educator, as well as the contribution that each teacher makes towards accomplishing goals of the School that lie outside that teacher’s classroom.